


Sleepover

by Jaseish (Kymopoleia)



Series: LR Multiship Week 2017 [5]
Category: LoliRock (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, LoliRock Multiship Week, he's like 2/3 years older than her in this, she's like 18 and he's like 20/21
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-22 20:52:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11974791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kymopoleia/pseuds/Jaseish
Summary: Talia came to the castle to spend a night with her friend. Sometimes it's hard to stick to plans though, especially when the other choice looks like a dream bathed in a golden glow, smiling at her like something she can't quite place.Maybe it's easy to let herself spare a minute.





	Sleepover

**Author's Note:**

> so i really love jodalia a lot okay? it's fuckin adorable and i cry so much over it ok so much

Talia presses a hand to the door as she closes it, sighing in relief when it closes silently. The war was over, the world was being rebuilt, but there was still time for friends. She’d come to Volta to have a sleepover with Auriana and spend some quality time with the younger princess, and found one thing she’d never realized on Earth:

Auriana snored. Terribly.

She can’t help but stifle a giggle as the sound echoes through the door and softly into the hall. Poor Auriana, whoever she eventually dated would have to get used to THAT. If Talia was a boy on Earth or Ephedia, she’d definitely run at the sound of that snoring.

But she can’t deny that she does love her friend. They’d been through so much, years in the resistance working side by side and years with Iris, fighting hand in hand and watching each other’s backs closely enough to keep each other alive against all the opposition.

Back on Earth she’d never have said it, but the relief in her heart at having Auriana by her side was almost greater than knowing her sister was still alive or that Iris was safely in the capital, a hand in her Mother’s and a hand in her Father’s and learning to govern with hopefully ironclad teachers. After teaching Iris as much as she could about magic, Talia knew that the blonde had a certain knack for tugging her instructors off topic.

But she turns, pulling her hair into a ponytail and sighing. No time to hover in front of bedroom doors like a creep, she needed some warm amellah if she was going to get to sleep.

She’d forsaken shoes almost immediately upon entering the castle- as was custom, which she understood but sometimes cursed. The floors, so different from the castle back home, were warm and uneven, almost gripping back with each gentle step she took. Auriana had told stories of the hundred year soiree that her family had held to build it, each piece hand crafted by someone in the kingdom. And how well it had held up, how individual but perfect each piece that slotted into the next was. At the same time, she was sure she’d get blisters and long for the lake-smooth stone of her home, the way it seemed the floor would ripple when you took that first step off of the stairs into it.

Talia ran her hands over a column as she passed it, twisting to make the turn. She was lucky that the Voltan castle was massive and open, not nearly as stifling as the dozens of siblings and cousins and mothers and fathers, overwhelming and loving and impossible to meet without getting overwhelmed.

However they were all kind and welcoming, unlike the billowy darkness of the halls. Open and huge, occasional curtains bigger than any others Talia’d seen turning areas into an Earth horror movie. She kept expecting to see a figure in the distance holding a candle, red eyes boring into her soul with nowhere to run.

But she needed that amellah. Insomnia had become part of her body like the straight posture and sharp eyes, years of going without and needing to be constantly alert turning what used to be a taste into a need. She’d even go so far as to joke that she was addicted to the sweet fruity drink, except that’d be putting it too lightly. She had a dependency on the stuff, needed it to sleep and needed it to calm down. The slight warmth of it always felt like a blanket wrapping around her shoulders, and she’d be lying if she said that she didn’t secretly cherish that feeling.

She sighs and pauses at a crossroads. If she were correct to her left was the dining room, and just down this hallway was…

There was a light on inside the kitchen.

Talia put a hand on that doorway as she entered too, blinking in surprise. She hadn’t expected to run into anyone this late, fatigue and the hour proving her right up until now.

There’s a few bubbles of golden magic over the large counter island where she’d witnessed proud Voltans prepare dinner earlier, but now it’s just illuminating a lone figure leaning against the counter.

Oh.

“Jodan?” She called gently, stepping inside. She didn’t want to startle him, that’d be terrible. Who knew what he’d do in reaction, she’d seen his defensive moves before.

He turns, holding a glass of something red with a single piece of ice inside it. He blinks at her. “Talia? I thought you’d be asleep by now.”

She laughs, coming closer to lean against the opposite side of the counter. “I can’t sleep. Did you know Auriana snores?”

He can’t help the chuckle, setting his glass down and tracing the lip of it. “Like a wild cratsini with a cold. Did she run you out of the room?”

“Yes and no. Do you have any amellah here?” She glanced around, not quite sure where it’d be kept. It was traditionally kept in Xerin crystal in warm, dry cupboards back home… but here everything was different. “It helps me sleep.”

He tsks, turning and heading for the sink. “No, no amellah here. That fruit only grows in Xeris, not suited to our hot, humid temperatures.”

Talia pouted, propping her chin up as she leaned on the counter further. “Then I won’t get any sleep until I go back to Xeris.”

“Ah bup bup,” He wags a finger at her as he picks up a pitcher next to the counter. It had dark amber sides, etched and designed to look like an opening sigdal flower. The handle, how clever, was shaped like its split leaves. “There is something else I can offer, if you’re willing to try it.”

“What could possibly rival amellah?” She asked, incredulous. It’d been the only remedy that’d worked, and she’d tried the mysterious Eath Nyquil.

“Datzdi.” He replied simply, refilling his own glass slowly, carefully. She watched as the red liquid flowed out, cracking the icecube further.

“Dahts… di?” She whispered. Voltan words so often felt strange on her tongue, she had to admit.

“Datzdi. It’s a type of drink to help you sleep, like amellah, but more…” He laughs as he holds the glass up next to a globe of magic, the red light from the drink splashing across his nose and catching every dip and hollow of his form not hidden by the sleeveless sleeping shirt. “Voltan.”

“And it works?”

“If you’re strong enough to try it.”

Talia frowned. “You’re not… daring me to try it, are you.”

Jodan shrugged. “Am I?”

She…

Talia would not be one upped by a Voltan prince. Not by one of Auriana’s siblings, and certainly not someone smiling like they’d backed her into a corner and had something over her.

She skirts around the side of the counter and pulls the glass from his hand, taking a big gulp.

The immediate feeling is ‘fire’, leaving her gasping with her vision swimming. His hand pulls the glass from hers and moves to rub her back gently as she coughs, hitting the table.

“Whoa, whoa, not so much, breathe.” He comforts her.

Talia laid her face on the cold counter, groaning. Her throat ached from coughing and from the drink. “Amellah is soft and sweet. That was salty and bitter and cruel to the tongue… why drink it? What will it accomplish?”

“It sets fire to your throat, yes, but it also eases you into sleep. Like a lullaby talking about burning villages.” He reminded her of the Xerisian song that even her own mothers had sang to her.

“Likely story. Do you have any water?”

“No water, that’ll wake you up.” He patted her back. “But you could eat a piece of navera instead, it’ll neutralize the burn while giving you something in your stomach.”

“Navera…” She pauses, glancing at the place where she’d seen the cooks stash them earlier. “Fine. If you insist.”

“I really do, if you couldn’t handle that.” He squeezed her shoulder one last time before stepping over to pull one out and hand it to her. After a pause he pulls out a second, stepping back to top off his glass.

“Have you had much of that tonight?” Talia was fascinated suddenly. He downed the glass, sucking on the ice cube for a moment before gently spitting it back into the glass.

“It helps me sleep.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“But doesn’t it?”

That was right. He’d been in Kraznak prison for years before they met, in that desert on Earth. With his family, sure, but in a place so vile that just the mention of it made her curl her lip. Even now her violent twitch at the thought, the unspoken things that had gone between her and her sister when they got their first moment alone, knowing that Talia had been cripplingly alone and free, but Izira had been… in that place.

“You’re a lot stronger than I am.” Talia whispers, breaking off a corner of the navera.

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“No, because you’re humble.”

“No, because I’m honest.” He put a hand on hers, letting her eyes drift up to his. “I spent my years there angry, bitter, and vowing revenge against the people who’d put me there. I gave up my food so that my sisters wouldn’t have growling stomachs, and I trained them as best as I could until we were old enough to be ‘separated’.”

Talia had been so grateful not to be captured. She’d been so grateful not to be dead. She’d been so angry and so scared and so upset for so long…

But here Jodan stood. He’d been through everything she’d been scared of for so long, and all he did was drink something she couldn’t stomach, and help her through it. Just to help her.

“Okay, you’re still a better person.”

Jodan combed his fingers through her hair. “You helped bring peace to everyone in Ephedia. You did what we weren’t strong enough to do. Auriana told me how you guided her, Iris, the princesses of Borealis and Calix. Without you they wouldn’t have been able to do it, they would have been lost and scared and Gramorr would have won.”

Talia tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You’re putting a lot of faith in me.”

“You’ve earned it.”

The silence stretches between them for a second, her stomach in her throat at the tender way he was looking at her, the gentle way he was still petting her hair.

“Talia?”

She blinked and glanced at him. “Hm?”

“If you want to escape Auriana’s snoring for the night, I wouldn’t mind sharing my bed. I do need to sleep in it as well, but there’s plenty of space.” He offered quietly, as if he expected to be turned down.

Talia thought for a moment. The glass they’d shared, the piece of ice glistening in the bottom of his cup, the navera in front of her.

She ate the navera quickly, swallowing the flaky bread and closing her eyes. He was right, it did ease the burn.

“Lead the way.” She flashed a smile.

Jodan offered her a hand, and she took it.

Maybe the castle wouldn’t be as scary with someone to guide her through it.


End file.
